Joseph sachs



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH SACHS, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRIC CIGAR-LIGHTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 516,878, dated March 20, 1894.

Application filed February 2, I893- $erial No. 460,775. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH SACHS, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented an Improved Electric Cigar-Lighter, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to devices in which heat is produced by an electric current in a suitable conductor so mounted and protected as to form a convenient means for lighting cigars.

The main object of the invention is to provide a construction for devices of this character which shall be simple and at the same time practical and efiicient.

In connection with this improved cigar lighter I employ an automatic switch for completing the circuit when the device is being used, and opening the circuit when the lighter is out of use.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention, Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section of my preferred form of cigar lighter. Fig. 2 is an end view thereof. Fig. 3 shows an insulating disk, hereinafter to be described. Fig. 4 is a central longitudinal section, and Fig. 5 is a partial section, of modified forms of cigar lighters.

In my cigar lighter the heating conductor is preferably a platinum or other high resistance conductor, 1, arranged in a zig-zag manner on a sheet or disk, A, of asbestus or other insulating and heat resisting material. The ends of this conductor are connected to plugs or terminals 2, 3, which project from the upper face of the disk. The heating conductor is held in place by its connection with these terminals, and by being stitched through the asbestus at the points 4, or otherwise. 5 is a disk of mica or other insulating and heat resisting material having holes 6 in position to receive the terminals 2, 3.

In its preferred form the lighter has a body or handle 7 of wood, hard rubber,vulcanized fiber or other suitable material, which can be turned, molded or otherwise worked to the desired shape, having two passages 8, 9, extending from end to end thereof, and having a screw threaded end 10. Into the said passages, adjacent to the screw threaded end, I

place tight fitting metal plugs 11, from which project conducting wires or rods 12, terminating some distance from the opposite end of the handle. A sufiicient quantity of mercury 13, or other mobile conducting material,

is then placed in each passage to fill the same nearly to the end of conductors 12. The passages at the upper end of the handle are then tightly closed by metal plugs 14, having binding screws 15, to which the wires of the supply circuit can be connected. Disk 5 is placed directly against the lower end of the handle, and below this is placed the asbestus diskA with its heating conductor 1, and the plugs 2, 3, passing through the holes 6, and making electrical contact with plugs 11. The screw threaded ring 16, with an interior flange 17, is then screwed onto the handle, and securely holds the disks in place, in such manner that they can be readily removed when it becomes necessary to substitute a new conductor, or when desired for any other reason. When the lighter hangs in the position shown the circuit thereto is open at the two points 18; when the lighter is turned or reversed to use it, the mercury runs to the opposite end of the passages 8, 9, connecting plugs 14 and conductors 12, closing the circuit, and sending current through the heating conductor.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4 the handle or body has only one passage 8', and this passage extends only partly through the handle. Along opposite sides thereof extend conductors 19, 20, which terminate at the lower end in metallic plugs or terminals 21 to make contact with terminals 2, 3, on the lighting device. At the upper end conductors 19, 2O terminate adjacent to the contact springs 22, held in place by an insulating plug 23. The wires of a supply circuit are connected to the springs 22. 24 is an insulating ball, such as a marble, which normally stands in the position shown. When the lighter is taken up for use the ball rolls to the opposite end of the passage, and presses springs 22 against the conductors 19, 20 completing the circuit to the heating conductor.

In the modification of Fig. 5, one of the conductors 25, leading through the handle, is continuous. The other conductor, 26, terminates in a metal plug 27, from which extends a wire or rod, 28. Within the passage is a sliding metallic head, 29, having one or more metallic springs, 30, adapted to continuously make contact with rod 28. The upper end of the passage is closed by a plug 31 through which extends a conductor 32, having a suitable terminal 33, against which the head 29 can slide when the device is used, thereby closing the circuit.

\Vhile automatic switches for cigar lighters are not, broadly, new, it is believed new to provide automatically movable switches directly in the handle, specially formed for the purpose, and operating in substantially the manner set forth.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a handle having passages therein and switching devices in one or both of said passages, conducting plugs at each end of said passages, a disk of insulating material, a heating conductor on said disk, terminals for said heating conductor and means for clamping the disk to the handle and connecting the terminals of the heating conductor with the plugs at one end of the passages, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a handle having terminals for connection with feed conductors, contact pieces at the other end of the handle, switching devices between the terminals and the contact pieces, a detachable disk of insulating material having a heating conductor thereon,terminals for said heating conductor, and means for connecting the disk with the handle and at the same time connecting the terminals of the heating conductor with the contacts in the handle, substantially as described.

3. The combination of ahandle or hotly having automatic switching devices therein, feed conductors attached to said switching devices, a disk of insulating material having a heating conductor and its independent terminals mounted thereon, and means for clamping the disk to the handle, and at the same time connecting the terminals of the heating conductor to the switching devices in the handle, substantially as described.

4. In a cigar lighter, the combination with circuit terminals mounted on a handle, of a disk of insulating material, a heating conductor and its circuit terminals mounted thereon, and a clamping device for holding the disk on the handle and the circuit terminals of the handle and heating conductor in contact, substantially as described.

5. The combination with handle or body, having suitable conductors, disk 5,a heating device outside of disk 5, and consisting of an insulating and heat resisting support and a conductor adapted to serve as a heating conductor, and a clamping ring 16 for securing the same to the handle, substantially as described.

6. The combination of the handle, passages 8, 9, plugs 11, 14, normally disconnected therefrom, conducting means in said passages for connecting the plugs, and an exposed heating conductor connected to the plugs ll,snbstantially as described.

JOSEPH SACHS.

Witnesses:

HORATIO 0. KING, CHARLES M. OATLIN. 

